Surrounded

Nina Pryde was born on the day when Hong Kong was liberated from Japan’s occupation. Surviving in Hong Kong during the post war years was a constant struggle for her and her family. She grew up in a poor family with eight other siblings and at an early age was forced to leave school to work to help support the family. As Nina grew up and even while working she became very interested in drawing and studied fashion design. In 1967 Nina married the New Zealand entrepreneur Neil Pryde, and through the 1970’s faced the challenge of bringing up her own family, but as the children grew up and she had more free time Nina returned to the creative arts, first taking up pottery. Problems with her hands forced Nina to give up pottery and she started to paint, initially studying with private tutors. Nina joined the School of Continuing and Professional Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and in 2004 obtained a Diploma in Fine Arts. Nina then went on to study Chinese Ink Painting at the Hong Kong Chingying Institute of Visual Arts with renowned artist Wucius Wong. Not satisfied with her progress, Nina joined a Masters course in fine arts jointly run by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the Hong Kong School of Art from which she graduated in 2007 with the Outstanding Student Award for her work, “The Sound of Silence”. After graduation Nina continued to study with Wucius Wong and under his mentoring she further developed her own style and technique. Nina excels at painting abstract landscapes using Chinese ink to create three-dimensional images. Her work is marked by a conscious blending of Chinese and Western values with traditional and modern cultures. In recent years, Nina has refined her techniques with the use of powerful skilled brushstrokes and the imaginative use of collage and calligraphy, and created a new and exciting approach to Chinese ink painting. Nina now works from the Pryde Studio in Fotan, Hong Kong where she has created a large body of work which has been widely exhibited.